Tanya Hosch
Tanya Hosch has spent much of her working life in Adelaide, South Australia. Most of this time Tanya was employed in the State Public Sector across a broad range of service and policy organizations. This included policy in human resource management, women's services, and Aboriginal affairs.
Since then Tanya has worked in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Unit of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in Sydney, for the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation in Canberra, and then with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission in both Canberra and Adelaide.
Tanya has been active in developing and delivering Leadership Programs for young Indigenous people and until recently was a Board Director for the Australian Indigenous Leadership Centre. Tanya is a Director of the Foundation for Young Australians and was a co-founder, former Trustee and inaugural Chairperson of the National Indigenous Youth Movement of Australia.
In her home State, Tanya sits on the Boards of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, was Chair of the former Women's Health Ministerial Advisory Council and is also a Board member of South Australia's largest Regional Health Service. Tanya also provides advice to the State Department of Education and Children's Services on the development of women within the Department.
In addition, Tanya serves as a Director on the Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation, is a Visiting Research Fellow with the University of Technology, Sydney. Recently Tanya has accepted an invitation to join the Board of Directors for International Funders of Indigenous Peoples based in North America. Tanya currently operates as a consultant and works in a range of Indigenous specific and broader social policy areas across Australia and has a particular interest in the area of philanthropy.
What a reconciled Australia looks like to me.
I’m not sure I can answer this fully in one page. I am not even sure that I see reconciliation as the ultimate goal, or as some sort of panacea to strive for. I also think reconciliation is probably the wrong word to start with and we need to think about what reconciliation means before we have a chance of arriving at some broad collective agreement about what reconciliation will look like.
When I am asked what reconciliation is, I think of it like this:
A just and equal relationship between the First Australians and all other Australians, experienced through the full cultural, social and economic participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the life of the nation.
I could prepare an endless list of what this would look like in reality but am going to list a few key things.
If we were reconciled:
- Australia will acknowledge our true history and Indigenous people won't have to defend our stories or status as the First Australians
- Part of our national pride will come from our ability to embrace these truths as well as a program to redress the injustice and inequalities resulting from our history
- Racism will be acknowledged for what it is so we can concentrate on real solutions to these problems
- The health and social status of Indigenous peoples will be at least equal to the standard we set as acceptable for the rest of Australia
- Rights recognition of Indigenous people will be thorough and set a great example for the rest of the world
- Our cultural differences will be seen as one of our nations strengths and we will share our diversity and celebrate it genuinely
- Communication between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians will be open, respectful and honest
- Indigenous peoples contributions in our communities will exist freely in all areas of our nations life
- Our political leadership will be consistent and bold in leading us to this outcome
Tanya Hosch
